Bareshaft tuning - Effect of Fletches on Spine?

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sparrowfoot

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I'm using bareshaft shooting to tune wooden arrows, and this seems to work well and as expected i.e. weak arrows rotate one way, strong arrows the other.

However, I've read that the fletches increase the dynamic spine of the arrow (as well as doing the stabilising in flight). Does this mean that the bareshaft arrows should be tuned a little bit weak to compensate?

I've seen advice around about how much the pile weight and arrow length alters the spine, but I've not seen anything for the fletches.
 

jerryRTD

Well-known member
I have not seen anything either , but it would seem to be logical to assume that the weight of the fletches would have a similar magnitude of effect to an increase in point weight. But that is not a lot due to the weight of the fletches.
Yes you ideally you should tune the bare shaft weak but you're going to have to be shooting very well to notice the difference.
 

bkupris

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If you have a grain scale you can weigh your fletchings and wrap an equal weight of tape onto the nock end of your bareshafts..
 

soundo26

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Can I ask whether you have fitted the nocks yourself? The reason I ask is that one fundamental thing to remember with wooden arrows is that wood has a natural grain which must be taken into account when fitting the nocks. If you spine test a wooden shaft you can get several different readings depending on the orientation of the grain relative to the nock. If you look at the end of a wooden shaft before applying the nock you will see the direction of the grain, if you imagine the string going North to South (vertical) the grain should be set to go East to West (horizontal), if you are spine testing, this is the direction you should be testing in as this will be the stiffer plane, if you were to test the same arrow after turning it 90 degrees you will get a weaker reading. So in short, the shaft is stiffer across the grain rather than with the grain and the nock slot should be oriented at 90deg to the grain to get the stiffest spine. All the shafts used should be spine matched in the same way for consistency.
Hope this helps!!!
 

sparrowfoot

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That's a good idea (equivalent weight of tape on the shaft). I just weighed some fletches and 3 of them are about 1/10 the weight of the pile - small but maybe not insignificant.

I would have thought it's a combination of the extra mass and the air resistance (at right angles to the shaft on release). If you waft a fletched arrow about you can certainly feel the effect.
 

bkupris

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Just depends how exact you want to get with your tuning. Personally I don't bother with the tape but some people prefer to :)
 

sparrowfoot

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Can I ask whether you have fitted the nocks yourself?...
Thanks for this advice. Yes, I fit the nocks myself and do take the grain direction into account. The bareshaft method does seem to show up small differences in spine, which is helpful.
 

sparrowfoot

New member
Well, I might as well get them as good as possible, especially if it's just a bit of tape involved. But yes, if it's a 1% correction then it's not important.

I thought there might be a bit of arrow lore along the lines of "make the arrows a bit weak before fletching".
 

CallMaker

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I do not believe that the fletching will have any significant effect on spine, dynamic or static. But then I never bare shaft in any case. Of course my needs may be different as I am a hunter only and very seldom shoot over 25 yards.

I do enjoy this site as it provides an opportunity to see how things are done in other places.
 
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